Magnus Carlsen, the top rated chess player in the world, leads the London Chess Classic after five rounds out of eight.

Currently, Magnus has 13 points in the football-style scoring (three points for a win, one for a draw) with four victories and only one draw. The draw came against former world champion Vladimir Karamnik, who holds second place with 11 points. Reigning American champion Hikaru Nakamura is in third with eight points.

With his win today as Black over British GM Mickey Adams, Magnus has a preformance rating of over 3100 for the tounament thus far. That gives him unofficially an up-to-the minute Elo rating of 2861, surpassing Garry Kasparov's high-water mark of 2851 reached in Jualy 1999 and January 2000.

The tournamet is among nine competitors with each playing eight games in nine rounds with a different player getting a bye in each round. The event concludes Monday.

Ukrainian international master Anna Yurivna Ushenina won the FIDE Women's Knock Out held in the Siberian oil town of Khanty-Mansiysk between November 11 and December 1 and thus became the new world women's champion.

Anna Yurivna defeated Bulgarian grandmaster Antoaneta Stefanova, who held the world women's title from 2004 to 2006, in the final round of the event.

The first five rounds of the tournament were each held over three days and the sixth and final round over five. The first five rounds consisted of two games under standard time control on the first two days and a day for any necessary rapid and blitz playoffs. The final round consisted of four regulation games and a day of rapid and blitz playoffs. The winner of each round advanced to the next round and the loser was eliminated.

Anna Yurivna wins the event as the Cinderella of the tournament. Along the way she defeated not only Stefanova, but Nadezhda Kosintseva, Ju Wenjun and Anna Muzychuk, all regarded as stronger than she. Anna Yurivna took out Muzychuk in round two, which was a devastating round for the tounament's top seeds; the second round saw the end of the line for not only Muzychuk, but Ukraine's strongest player, Katya Lahno, as well as Koneru Humpy of India and reigning world women's champion Hou Yifan of China.

Anna Yurivna will defend her title against Hou Yifan, the winner of the 2011/12 Women's Grand Prix, some time in 2013. Hou Nushi is expeced to be a heavy favorite to recapture the world women's title.

World Youth Finishes in Maribor; 14-year-old takes first among 18-yo girls

The World Youth Championships were held this year in Maribor, Slovenia from November 8 though 18.

The big story is that the 18-year-old girls category was won by 14-year-old Aleksandra Goryachkina, a WGM from Russia. The young lady was the second seed among all the women in the tournament, regardless of age. Only Meri Arabidze of Georgia began the event with a higher rating among firls.

Ms. Goyachkina score 9˝ points in eleven rounds, a full point ahead of runner-up Lisa Schut of Holland. Russian Maria Severina took third with 8 points.

In the boys 18 and under category, grandmaster Dariusz Sweircz of Poland, the top seed, took first with 9 points, with Armenia GM Hovhannes Gabuzyan second with 8˝ points GM Jorge Cori Tello of Peru third with 8 points.

GM Alexander Areshchenko of Ukraine won the 2012 edition of the Mikhail Chigorin Memorial Open in St Petersburg scoring 7˝ points out of a possible 9, edging out Polish GM Bartosz Socko for the top prize on tie-break points.

The rematch of the online game between Aremian-American grandmaster Varuzhan Akobian and "The World", a team of about 300 actively participating members of the website ChessGames.com, continued through the month of November.

The game started on August 1 and is the second game of a series. Last year, with Mr. Akobian playing White, the game ended in a draw. This year, The World is playing White and at this writing is as of today discussing what to do on it's 30th move.

As a member of the World team, I will have nothing more to say about the game until its completion.

31...Qb6 32.Kg2 Nbxd4 33.cxd4 Nxd4 34.Rd2 Nb3 35.Rd6 gives White the Bishop pair for three pawns and a Knight. the initiative against Black's Queen and more space; Black's three passed pawns pale by comparison.

White is accumulating small advantages to the point of being quite comfortable. She has an extra pawn, solid command of of the b1/h7 diagonal and a 3:1 pawn majority on the kingside; After recapturing at d4, Black will have a 3:2 majority on the queenside and more space.

17...Bxc3 18.Bxc3 Qxe2 19.Qxb7 Qa6 20.Qxa8 Bd7 21.Rfe1 gives White the exchange and a pawn in material and command of the e-file; White cannot extricate the Queen from the corner, but he will get a Rook and a minor piece in return (Spraggett-Norwood, Op, Toronto, 1985).

This is the defense to the Queen's Gambit which has come to be called the Tarrasch Defense but which Dr. Tarrasch himself called the Normal Defense. Dr. Tarrasch used Normal to distinguish his defense from the Orthodox Defense. Dr. Tarrasch would find our labeling of the game as Orthodox/Normal a bit curious. To Dr. Tarrasch, the Orthodox Queen's Gambit is one that featured Black's set up ...d5, ...e6, ...Nf6, ...Be7; for us, it is Black's set up against the Queen's Gambit featuring ...d5 and ...e6 without an early ...c6. The sub-category Normal falls under the category Orthodox, which is opposed to the category Slav or Semi-Slav.

Dr. Tarrasch's idea is to give Black a freer game for his pieces, but this comes at the cost of isolating Black's d-pawn. For this reason, the defense has never been very popular, but it's adherants include Marshall, the young Capablanca, Stoltz, the young Kasparov and Armenian-American GM Var Akobian.

It should be noted that White usually play 3.Nc3 instead of 3.Nf3 as in this game. Other than that, while the first four moves are pretty standard, but after that the move order is not terribly important and many transpositions are possible.

4.cxd5 exd5 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2

BLACK

WHITE

Orthodox Queen's Gambit: Normal Defense (Catalan Opening)

Position after 6.Bg2

The use of the King's fianchetto as a tool against the Normal Defense is an innovation of Akiba Rubinstein, whose most palmy days were about a hundred years ago. The idea is put pressure on Black's isolated d-pawn.

18...Qa5 19.Qxa5 Nxa5 20.e4 Nc4 21.exd5 Nxb2 22.Bd4 gives White a small advantage in space;,after the pawn exchange in the center, White's Bishop pair will be more significant.

If 14.Kh2 Qd7 then:

If 15.Qa4 a6 then:

If 16.Nxc6 bxc6 17.Rfd1 then:

If 17...Reb8 18.Bd4 Rb4 19.Qc2 then:

19...Qb7 20.b3 Rc8 21.e4 dxe4 22.Bxf6 gxf6 23.Nxe4 gives White much stronger pawns and command of the open file; White has the Bishop pair that may become more significant in the open center (Sundararajan-Dean, US Op, Orlando, Florida, 2011).

If 57...Rh6+ then 58.Rh2!! wins immediately as Black must either exchange Rooks and allow the pawn to promote, move the Rook off the file and allow the pawn to promote, viz.58...Rd6 59.Rh3+!! (White cannot simply queen: If (59.h8Q?? then 59...Rd1#!)59...Ke2 60.h8Q Rd1+ 61.Kh2 or capture the pawn and lose the Rook (58..Rxh7 59.Rxh7).

The opening notes in this game are to compare and contrast the English Game in which Black adopts a defense similar to those found in Queen's Gambit with the King's Indian Attck, or, as we prefer to call it, the Kia Game.

The reason for this exercise on my part is that I have began playing a series of games with another gentleman on Monday afternoons. In our first game, in which he had White, he opened with a Kia Game. Not really familiar with the Kia, I got a bad position and lost.

2.c4 has been called the Reti Opening for decades, but it is our contention that there is no such thing as a Reti Opening. The famous game Reti-Bogoljubow, It, New York, 1924, which continued 2...e6 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 Bd6 5.0-0, is classified on ChessGames.com as an English Game: Agincourt Defense. We contend that 1.Nf3 ... 2.c4 is simply an English Game by tansposition.

22.d4!? Bb7 23.dxc5 Qxc5 24.e7 Rfe8 25.Be3 forces Black to defend against a passed pawn on the seventh rank, which while not difficult in this position may still be a nuisance (Aleshnya-Ernazarov, Corres, 2006).

White has the advantage in space, and the rule of thumb is to avoid exchange when one has the advantage in space. The Bishop attacks the pawn, but isn't doing anything else except waiting to be exchanged.

38...Be8 39.Kg3 Bg6 40.a4 gives White an active Rook and a Bishop capable of menacing Black's critical pawns; Black has no counterplay on the queenside.

If 38...a4 39.Kg3 axb3 then:

40.axb3 Rb7 41.Re6 Rb8 42.Rc6 Be8 43.Rd6 gives White a small advantage; Black will have to fight for his weak pawns, especially at e4.

If 40.Rd7+!? Kf6 then:

41.axb3 Ke6! 42.Rc7 Ke5 43.Re7+ Kf5 44.Rd7 gives White a slight advantage overall thanks to his more active Rook and the right colored Bishop given the pawn structure; Black has the most advanced pawn on the board, but to take advantage of it he will have to attack White's pawn at e3, something that would be difficult to accomplish.

41.Rd2!? bxa2 42.Rxa2 Ke5 43.Ra7 Rg8 44.Rb7 Bf5+ is equal; Black still has the sam disadvantages as in the pink variation, but is compensated with an active Rook and a queenside majority.

8. Schut - Goryachkina, Girls U18, Round 6

Remember the name Aleksandra Goryachkina. She is a 14-year-old Russian who entered the World Youth Championships as the second seed among all the young ladies competing. So, even though the World Youth Championships is divided into age categories, this young lady competed not against 14-year-olds, but against 18-year-olds and took first place with 9˝ points out of a possible 11.

In this game she takes down Lisa Schut of Holland, the runner-up in the 18-year-old category.

Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian grandmaster who celebrated his 22nd birthday less than two weeks ago, won the London Chess Classic today with 18 points out of a possible 24 and will officially become the highest-rated player of all time when FIDE releases its January ratings in three weeks.

Magnus won five games and drew three without a loss in the event for a tournament performace rating just under the rarely achieved 3000 and a career rating now unofficially standing at 2861, surpassing Garry Kasparov's all time record of 2851 achieved in 1999 and 2000. Since the rating is based on a mathematical formula, there is no way that Magnus' rating of 2861 will not be recognized as official in January.

Magnus achieved a tournament performance rating over 3000 once, in 2009 at a tournament in Nanjing, China.

Magnus drew his game today with the reigning world champion, Vishy Anand. Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, the only player who entered the last round with a chamce to catch Magnus, also drew his game against British Adams to finish second with 16 points in the football style scoring (three points for a win, one for a draw) used in London. Reigning American champion Hikaru Nakamura took advantage of a terrible blunder by British GM Luke McShane to gain victory in the only decisive game in the last round, finished tied for third with Mr. Adams at 13 points.